Diary detailing love affair, jealousy holds clues to Shehla Masood's murder

The diary of Zahida Parvez, an interior designer from Bhopal arrested this week, may nail its author for the murder of Shehla Masood. In August last year, Ms Masood, a Right to Information activist who was well-known in Bhopal, was found dead in her car outside her home.  The CBI believes that Ms Parvez, seized by jealousy, hired a hit-man to assassinate the activist.

Ms Masood was known locally for her close ties to different BJP politicians. One of them, an MLA named Dhruv Narayan Singh, was allegedly romantically involved with the interior designer.  Ms Parvez's diary, with entries in Hindi and Urdu, documents her relationship with the MLA, as well as her escalating suspicions over the nature of his friendship with Ms Masood.  She allegedly tracked the MLA's phone bills closely to keep tabs on his private life. In the diary, recovered by investigators from her office, she wrote in March last year, "Either, I will commit suicide or I will kill those who are close to Dhruv.'

The CBI believes that she then befriended a local contract killer who in turn hired the men who actually shot Ms Masood.

In her diary, on the day of the murder, Ms Parvez writes that she received a phone call from the contract killer who said "Congratulations, the work has been completed in front of the house."

More evidence against the interior designer could come from a friend of hers named Saba Farooqui who was also arrested today.  Accompanied by her friend, Ms Parvez allegedly stalked the MLA; one day, her diary shows, she saw him entering Ms Masood's home.

The dead activist's father, Masood Sultan, says that to the best of his knowledge, his daughter did not know the woman arrested for her murder.  He also acknowledges that Mr Singh was a frequent visitor to his home.  He told NDTV today that the MLA was the first person he called after he learnt his daughter had been killed.  "He just kept quiet," he recalled. "I expected him to ask for details but he did not. Then he came to the house to offer his condolences. After that he never came to meet us," he said.

Mr Singh has been interrogated by the CBI.

Bhopal architect got Shehla Masood killed, CBI arrested

In a major breakthrough, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a Bhopal-based architect Zahida Pervez in connection with the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood in August last year.

Pervez is presently in the CBI custody and is believed to have informed the investigators that she had some personal rivalry with the RTI activist.

Pervez had also confessed before the CBI officials that she had hired a contract killer to get Masood eliminated. However, the person who allegedly shot at the RTI activist was later killed in Kanpur.

The investigations into the murder of the RTI activist was finally transferred to the Delhi branch of the CBI. Prior to that, the murder was being looked into by the Bhopal unit of the central probe agency.

The decision to hand over the case to CBI Delhi office was taken in view of the fact that not much headway was made into the investigations in the case.

The Bhopal Unit of the CBI had begun investigations into the killing on September six.

The Bhopal unit had even announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone giving information leading to the arrest of the assailant(s).

The 32-year-old activist was shot dead in broad daylight in front of her house on August 16 last year, while she was leaving for a campaign of India Against Corruption (IAC). She had, earlier, alleged that she was getting threatening calls.

Shehla was working on several issues including good governance, police reforms, environment, tiger protection, transparency and RTI Act.

The case was given to the CBI three weeks after she was murdered.